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Budgeting for the Planet

Ireland cannot avoid its responsibility to reduce global warming and now is the time for politicians to act. Delaying will only make harsher action necessary later

Do we in Ireland have even the remotest intention of living up to our responsibilities on global warming? Today’s budget will tell us a lot in that respect.

We hardly needed any further reminder about the potentially catastrophic impact of climate change, but the latest report from the UN’s intergovernmental panel on the issue provides the starkest warning yet as to what will happen if the world does not get its act together.

We have little more than a decade to make sure that the global average temperature increase is limited to 0.5C in addition to the 1C increase that has occurred since pre-industrial times. It calculated that CO2 emissions would have to fall by 45 per cent from 2010 levels by 2030 and be…

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